It’s October 4th everyone! For the Google fans, it may as well be what you can call Google Day, G Day or whatever you fancy.
The company is set to take the stage at an event in Silicon Valley later today (7PM East African Time) where we expect it to unveil its two new smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, a reference model of its virtual reality platform, Daydream, a Chromecast dongle that can stream Ultra HD content, Google Home as well as plans for its Android-Chrome OS hybrid OS, Andromeda.
However, we won’t have to wait for the next 5 or so hours to have a rough idea at how much the Daydream VR headset will cost. According to Variety, it will go for $79.
Daydream is Google’s mobile VR platform. In other words, the Android of virtual reality. As mobile VR headsets, any Daydream hardware will depend on Daydream-certified Android smartphones for their displays. Google’s new Pixel and Pixel Xl smartphones are likely to be the first smartphones to ship as Daydream-ready. Partners like Xiaomi and Huawei are also expected to ship similar hardware before we wrap up the year.
Unlike other mobile VR headsets we have seen like Samsung’s Gear VR, Daydream VR headsets have a hand-held controller for navigation and interaction with the virtual world instead of the tedious (and cumbersome) touch pad that can be found on Samsung and Oculus’ device.
Daydream is expected to launch with a lot of content after Google managed to get on board several big-name partners like HBO, EA Sports and others early on.
The $79 pricing of the Daydream VR is expected to boost its standing in the market when it finally arrives since as things stand, virtual reality head gear is still pretty much expensive. Samsung slashed the price of its Gear VR to $99 some time back but full-fledged VR kits still cost up to 10 times the purported price of the upcoming Daydream VR (cough HTC Vive cough).
You can watch the event live on YouTube in a few hours.
